It was a toss up if I wanted to call Don Cunningham a thief or a whore over a proposed new bottling company, he's both. I chose whore only because of alliteration. One may wonder why most of the new industry on the western edge of the 78 corridor are bottling companies; the answer is easy, not too many local governments would be willing to sacrifice both their water supply and stream quality for a few jobs. Ocean Spray Juice, just outside of Trenton, is a "...major water user, major sewer user." This blog has documented how the new wells* necessary to supply the bottling companies will lower the level of the Little Lehigh. This blog has also documented how raw sewage spills* into the same creek during periods of heavy rain. Ocean Spray needs pretreatment at its New Jersey plant because the strength of the raw discharge exceeds levels permitted by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
"At times their pretreatment facility has had to be shut down," Lynch said, "and every time we take that waste on, it just wreaks havoc on our plant to the point where we're almost in violation of the DEP." Ocean Spray by Jenna Portnoy, The Morning Call, March 24, 2011For two hundred jobs, which may well be filled by their workers moving here from New Jersey, we will have our waterway with less water and more sewage?
*Water Thieves In Our Community Part 1
Conclusion of Water Thieves
Muddy Waters
Playgrounds and Feces
Tribune, save the water. In Tokyo mothers cannot use tap water for formula or to give to small children.
ReplyDelete"You don't know what you've got 'till its gone. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."
J. Mitchell
MM -
ReplyDeleteNot to politicize the post, but I find it infinitely curious that all the environmental groups - that would surely be howling if such actions were taken by a Republican politician - are amazingly quiet when it is being done by a Democrat.
I can think of at least a half-dozen such local groups (many that I have contributed to over the years) that have not done a thing to raise awareness on this important issue that you have been writing about for years. At the same time, some of these groups have lined up at the government trough for funding.
If nothing else, it has helped me recognize these groups for the political shills that they are.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteanon 3:59, my insinuation is that he is stealing water and it's purity, nothing more. for your comment to remain, a name would be necessary.
ReplyDeleteless water, more sewage, more pollution, more sinkholes, more fossil fuels consumed, abuse of a public good, eventual desertification of the earth.
ReplyDeleteyeah, water privatization is no good. public/private partnerships are ok-ish.
I wonder how many of your readers, MM, would want to let the market determine the drinking water for their community?
ReplyDeletegary, although i agree that water should certainly be a public function, i wish our local officials were better stewards. years ago we made things very difficult for a major manufacturer, Lucent, by putting fluoride in the water. it was necessary for them to then remove the chemical, at great expense, to produce silicone chips. perhaps they should have made one of the new bottlers utilize the vacant lucent factory to get water. at any rate, now we pimp the precious resource to the peril of future generations.
ReplyDeleteAnon 5:52 said:
ReplyDelete"yeah, water privatization is no good."
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Anon -
I don't think this story has anything to do with privatization.
Our local (county) government has the power to stop this, but our local (county) government politicians are selling us out.
"This lone blog publishes no political press releases, bashes no political opponents, and promotes no politician's agenda>"
ReplyDelete... but it calls Cunningham a whore ... or a thief. What a phony you are.
o'hare, those terms of endearment are directed toward his poor stewardship of our water, nothing more. if that wasn't clear, i made it so in comment #4 at 4:38pm. furthermore, cunningham is not currently involved in an election. nothing about my stated policy prohibits me from criticizing an elected official's policy on any issue.
ReplyDeleteI find it very interesting that, were Mr. Molovinsky not so magnanimous...
ReplyDelete...Mr. O'Hare, who has banned Mr. Molovinsky from commenting at his blog (as if this is some sort of meaningful punishment - eyes rolling)...
...would not have the opportunity to toss hateful and provocative words such as "phony" about here.
Yes indeedy, very interesting.
As Mel Allen would say, "HOW ABOUT THAT!"
Mr. Molovinsky,
ReplyDeleteThank you for writing about this constant frightening issue--selling the Valley's water to businesses at what price to the public. During the last rain storm about two weeks ago, it seemed sewage again spilled onto some meadow areas and who knows elsewhere in Allentown's Lehigh Parkway.
What's interesting to me about O'Hare's comment is that O'Hare bans MM from commenting on Ramblings and then comments on MM's blog and calls MM a phony. O'Hre is so blind he dos not recognize the irony in his own phony-ness.
ReplyDeletetaxpayer, i assure you o'hare came here with great reluctance, he prefers to shun this blog, but, it was overridden by his compulsion to defend cunningham.
ReplyDeleteBringing another water bottler in to Fogelsville is the equivalent of a poor Calcutta organ donor who sells his second kidney for the money. Our aquifer is overtaxed, the DRBC and the DEP won't do anything(political patronage?), Lehigh County Authority directly targets the Little Lehigh Creek, Aurel Arndt of LCA admitted that the bottlers would be the last to be hurt by a shutoff of service, Jaindl's huge development is empowered because LCA will supply water and sewer, even if they are in violation of all DRBC and DEP regulations. I will be getting more involved here.
ReplyDeleteThe good news is that this new bottler will fund the bloated public defined benefit pensions of Lehigh County and Lehigh County Authority. I guess that is worth losing the Little Lehigh Creek as a viable ecosystem and anchor of our beautiful parks.